Tuesday, November 10, 2015

My Review of Gotham's 2x08: "Tonight's The Night"

Written by Jim Barnes
Directed by Jeffrey Hunt

Barbara: "Make you? Jim, you long to kill me. Do it, Jim. Do me."
Gordon: "Don't take another step."

This week in terms of batshit craziness, Barbara well and truly excelled herself that I was both a little impressed and a lot creeped out by her. Her obsession with Gordon really took a hold of her this week that she allowed herself to be manipulated by Theo into handing herself over to GCPD and then forcing her ex-boyfriend into a trap and the possible wedding for hell. It really was as bonkers and scripted as it could've been.

The thing was though, the episode made a point, maybe too much of one that Gordon knew Barbara was leading him into a trap all along and yet, the guy willing put his head in the noose, didn't he? Gordon's recklessness would be enough to give Clara Oswald a moment of pause and this season, it's almost become a rather unfunny joke at times.

Morally, you want to root for the guy but when he continuously makes decisions that are beyond fucking stupid, you just wish someone - anyone would literally slap some sense into him. In this episode alone we had Leslie, Barnes, Bullock and even Barbara all calling Gordon out on his own lunacy but all four of them might as well have been talking to a brick wall for all the good it would've done them.

Speaking of Leslie, this show is in horrible danger of putting her in the same damn role that Barbara suffered from too before ditching her sanity. Leslie is a lot more deserving than just getting captured by Barbara and calling Gordon out on his stupidity from time to time. Give her something better to do, show. For God's sake, have her interact with Bruce Wayne a bit more or something.

As for Barbara - this was a fun episode for Erin Richards. She got to have a whale of a time as the seductive, kind of pathetic, absolutely dangerous and ultimately nutty Bridezilla from hell with Barbara this week. It was easily her best performance and the show managed to sideline it's annoying trend of bumping off female character by not having Babs kick the bucket when she fell off the church roof. I guess she'll be around for another while to be a thorn in Gordon and Leslie's sides.

The rest of the episode though wasn't as great. Theo's manipulation of Bruce came a little too swiftly for my liking but at least it was turned on it's head when Gordon was able to rescue Mayor James (seriously, who cares about that guy?) and pin his abduction on Theo, which means this whole arc should be coming to a conclusion within the next few episodes.

Last but not least - Nygma's officially become a serial killer. While trying to get rid of Kringle's body, he ended up killing someone else and then the episode ended with him and Oswald getting reacquainted. I'm not gonna lie - I really hate that they've made Nygma into a killer and it reeks of laziness but I love the idea of him and Oswald becoming friends though.

Also in "Tonight's The Night"

The opening Gordon/Barbara/Leslie dream sequence with puking birds and Oswald as a priest was utterly sublime. That type of bonkers is what this show can thrive on.

Barbara: "I love my present. Does it mean what I think it means?"
Theo: "Yes my dear. Today's the day you get to kill Jim Gordon."

Come to think of it, wouldn't Today's The Day have made more sense as a title for this episode?

Barbara: "I knew it. I knew you still had feelings for me."
Gordon: "Of course I have feelings. Talk to me."

Leslie (to Gordon): "You see an abyss and you run towards it. That's not healthy."

Barnes didn't notice that Leslie got kidnapped and that both Nygma and Kringle weren't at work? Of course not.

Bruce: "You want my company."
Theo: "I want to clean up Gotham. Protect it's citizens, return the city to what it was but I can't do it without your help."

Nygma: "For a secluded forest, this place sure has a lot of foot traffic."

No Selina or Butch this week. Or Dent or Lucious either. Why were the latter two made regulars when they've barely featured at all?

Leslie (re Gordon): "I know who he is."
Barbara: "How could you when he doesn't even know? He is incapable of being honest with himself, let alone anyone else."

Nygma: "Mr Penguin?"
Oswald: "Help me please."

Chronology: Not long from where Mommy's Little Monster left off.

An entertaining episode, but in spite of the manic joy of Barbara going nuttier than usual and Theo's storyline coming to a conclusion, Tonight's The Night did highlight a few gnawing problems this show continues to have - Gordon's reckless and the general treatment of it's female characters. On both fronts, this show needs to massively improve.

About Me

My name is Shawn Lunn and when I don't blog regularly on TV, I write a serious amount of reviews for a variety of different TV programmes as well as comics, books and DVDs pertaining to them (which can be found on my TV Tome and Shawnlunn2002 TVHITS Yahoo Group, also linked here) as well as on this blog. I'm a huge fan of all innovative and smart television.